Ive just had a phonecall which made me doubt if we as rescues/educators make ANY impact at all.

The call started nice enough, a well spoken middle aged man enquired about adopting a dog and he had seen the Spitz pups. I explained that two are preliminary booked pending HV. Well, he wanted two, a boy and a girl. So I explained that I do not rehome littermates together. And then he said: Where would I get another one then? As he had planned to breed them. That is wrong on so many levels (siblings, rescues, etc) - I was actually stuck for words for a moment. I explained what rescue was about etc and tried to stay nice (of course he would have never gotten a dog off me after that but I figured since he was paying for the call, I might try and educate him a bit).

His explanantion: he got laid off from work and an ex-collegue who breeds 4 different toy breeds told him to get into dog breeding, the smaller the breed the better. Nice tidy income. And since he couldnt afford to buy from a breeder he thought rescues are dying to give them away anyway. Which is how he came to find my website.

After 5 minutes I knew it was a lost cause, he knew about puppyfarms, he knew about pounds, yet, and he insisted: People are way more important than dogs and whats wrong with selling pups if you need food on the table?

I give up - I am very disillusioned. This guy was not the average scumbag but a seemingly well educated man who just didn't give a da*n.

:(

I also had a surprise last week. 

I was having coffee with a retired teacher who didn't know me.  I mentioned in the conversation that I had been showing and breeding dogs for 25 years and he said "Is that how you made your living?"  He isn't a 'doggy person' and so I took a deep breath and began to explain that good breeders don't do it for the money - they are trying to improve quality, and this VERY intellegent man just didn't begin to understand.

I've begun to think that because us dog people live in the dog world, perhaps we forget that Joe Public see dogs as .... well ....Just Dogs!

likewise had similar when a lady contacted me about puppies and then threw in the comment....."really id like a rescue as i can afford a puppy.....I realise you have to make a living, but pups are too expensive" !!!! I was speechless for a few seconds before I let forth and educated her!!!!

How on earth do you educate people like that? Well done for trying to educate him,you must have felt like losing your temper. I can remember trying to tell a non doggy friend about puppy farms and said they just do it to make money.She looked at me blankly and said "So what other reason is there to breed puppies?".

I find this extremely frustrating, I can deal with the scumbags and the ignorant peeps. But this guy was well aware of the situation here in Ireland, he still didn't give a da*n. I have refered people on to breeders as I rarely have pups here and often get queries for Staffie pups etc I always try to educate about health tests, good breeders, BYB etc. The world isn't black and white, it isnt breeders vs rescue, at least it shouldn't be. However, the Irish government has issued an information leaflet for Irish farmers a while back and recommended dog breeding as a sideline income... This is ridiculous and I am SO disillusioned. I am bending over backwards, doing talks in schools etc on top of the rescue work. But it doesn't make ANY impact. After the last talk in school I wasapproached by one of the parents and she asked me if I could take in a lab x bc pup as her purebred bitch which she breeds 2x a year had fallen "prey" to the neighbours collie. She drowned the other pups in a bucket and left only the one for the milk. This is a young woman half my age who saw nothing wrong with it. All her pups are IKC reg'd, so she is "legit" - it's sickening.

Sorry for the rant but I am really frustrated at present!!

> So what other reason is there to breed puppies?".

That pretty much sums it up.

it is what happens when I feel the need to qualify what I mean by a breeder when people ask me sing me with five if I am a breeder.

I also often get asked if any of mine are for sale????  They seem surprised when I say no.

Asif you would say yeh this one here give us 50 quid! Is that the answer there expecting like your walking them for an advertisement. This frustrates me as I get it too, but with my breed and the things on two legs it attracts it's normally an "oi you selling it" from across the street.

You can't educate those on a different wavelength. It's often those on the different wavelength that give out advice and pass laws on the subject of dogs too.

> His explanantion: he got laid off from work and an ex-collegue who breeds 4 different toy breeds told him to get into dog breeding, the smaller the breed the better. Nice tidy income.

I think that this happening more than we realise.

I had a call last weekend, a guy wanting to use my stud dog.  I asked some questions about his bitch, and he got quite annoyed that I wouldn't be part of mating a 3lbs bitch.  He said "how else do you get T-cup puppies?"

I asked if he had £1,000 spare to pay for a C-section when his bitch got into difficulty.  The answer was no (obviously), heaven help the little bitch.

I despair.  Because I'm pretty sure that he will find someone to take the stud fee and not be bothered.